For several years I've been using Winamp with the VSTBridge plugin to play my stereophonic recordings using the AmbiophonicDSP plugin (see: http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-37687.html ), but lately problems have been showing up using the audio drivers on my XP and Vista computers. So, I've tried the Foobar2000 player. It's not a pretty, but it seems to be a much more solid player. If you are getting frustrated with Winamp, I suggest you give Foobar2000 a go. Here's how:

Next download George Yohng's VST Wrapper for Foobar 2000 player. It is needed to enable foobar to load and use VST plugins, like the electro-music.com AmbiophonicDSP. See here: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/forums.html?showtopic=59206 for download link in instructions. Instructions are also included in the zip archive.

Next, just copy the AmbiophonicDSP.dll file, or other dll VST plugin, to the C:\Foobar2000\components directory (or where ever you installed it) on your drive. Activate the AmbiophonicDSP by clicking on the little blue VST image in the Windows toolbar, select the "Use VST Effect" menu item, select the AmbiophonicDSP VST plugin or whatever you are using, and enjoy your music.

It doesn't sound better than Winamp, but Foobar2000 is much more robust, at least for me. If Winamp is working for you, this won't be worth the trouble.

If you have questions or problems, post them here and I'll try to help you out. Thanks to electro-music.com user kraut for pointing me in the right direction on this._________________--Howard
my music and other stuff

Jack Mixer - Controls the output levels and therefore the downmix of the
5.1/7.1 source to 4.0 for Ambio surround.

Festige - A wrapper that allows you to run Windows VST effects in Linux.
(Requires Wine - a Windows operating layer for Linux).

I'm using an audio player called Deadbeef for stereo music sources. It is simple but powerful and supports many features and formats. Very similar to Foobar actually. It only allows stereo output to Jack and doesn't support video, therefore I use VLC for video and multichannel sources.

The setup may sound a little convoluted but in practice it works really well. I have several Ladish session presets for various stereo and surround sample rates. I just open Ladish, load a session preset and it automatically opens all the apps and I'm ready to go. I've included a few screenshots of the system in action. (The screenshot doesn't capture the video but you get the idea).

I cannot tell you how much I'm enjoying the Ambiophonic plugin and its ability to elucidate the hidden gems within the soundscape. It's like the fresh eyes analogy applied to your ears! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Jack Mixer - Controls the output levels and therefore the downmix of the
5.1/7.1 source to 4.0 for Ambio surround.

Festige - A wrapper that allows you to run Windows VST effects in Linux.
(Requires Wine - a Windows operating layer for Linux).

I'm using an audio player called Deadbeef for stereo music sources. It is simple but powerful and supports many features and formats. Very similar to Foobar actually. It only allows stereo output to Jack and doesn't support video, therefore I use VLC for video and multichannel sources.

The setup may sound a little convoluted but in practice it works really well. I have several Ladish session presets for various stereo and surround sample rates. I just open Ladish, load a session preset and it automatically opens all the apps and I'm ready to go. I've included a few screenshots of the system in action. (The screenshot doesn't capture the video but you get the idea).

I cannot tell you how much I'm enjoying the Ambiophonic plugin and its ability to elucidate the hidden gems within the soundscape. It's like the fresh eyes analogy applied to your ears! Thanks for sharing it with us.

All the best,

Paul

Hi!

From the screenshots I see you have set the delay value from the Ambio plugin to other than the default number.

Have you been able to store this value from one execution to another? I've tried several windows VST hosts and the delay parameter is always reseted to the initial value which is very annoying.

This does not happens with the other parameters whose values are correctly stored.

From the screenshots I see you have set the delay value from the Ambio plugin to other than the default number.

Have you been able to store this value from one execution to another? I've tried several windows VST hosts and the delay parameter is always reseted to the initial value which is very annoying.

This does not happens with the other parameters whose values are correctly stored.

Regards

Hi,

Unfortunately the delay setting is not stored between sessions and as you say this seems to occur across different hosts. Because my speakers are spaced at about twice the distance of the standard setup I simply double the delay setting each time. Another quirk I've noticed with the delay setting is that the default setting changes depending on the sample rate you are using. i.e. a higher sample rate will produce a lower default delay setting. It still functions correctly but the scale of the numbers is different. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Unfortunately the delay setting is not stored between sessions and as you say this seems to occur across different hosts. Because my speakers are spaced at about twice the distance of the standard setup I simply double the delay setting each time. Another quirk I've noticed with the delay setting is that the default setting changes depending on the sample rate you are using. i.e. a higher sample rate will produce a lower default delay setting. It still functions correctly but the scale of the numbers is different. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Kind regards,

Paul

Indeed, the same happens to me. This seems to be easily fixable by developers. Could Mosc or RMiller provide a fix or a workaround for this?

Are there any other changes you would like? I may have missed some issues.

I think the delay value was the only issue, other than maybe the possibility of adding new features (e.g. multi-channel version, settings to adjust the frequency bandwidth to which apply the ambio effect, frequency oversampling to improve accuracy, etc.).

Not planned because you can use as many copies of the plugin as you need.

Quote:

settings to adjust the frequency bandwidth to which apply the ambio effect

We have done a lot of experimentation and we find adding filters costs more in image clarity than it provides in benefits.

Quote:

frequency oversampling to improve accuracy, etc.).

The plugin runs that the sample rate determined by the host program. If you can get your host program to oversample, the AmbiophonicDSP plugin will follow suit. Oversampling in the digital domain would only add problems since there are no non-linear operations. In this kind of DSP, a the most dangerous thing is not having enough headroom (dynamic range). Internally, we deal with that problem, but using 24 bit audio is one thing you can do as a user, but it won't make much of an audible improvement._________________--Howard
my music and other stuff

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